US Official Visits Cuba’s Granma Daily
HAVANA TIMES — The Consul General of the US Interests Section in Cuba (USIS), Timothy P. Roche, recently visited the headquarters of the Granma newspaper, the official organ of the Communist Party on the island.
According to the report in that same newspaper, the reason for the unprecedented meeting was Roche’s responding to a request from USIS to address the requirements and regulations for obtaining US visas.
The consul and the rest of the entourage accompanying him made it clear that immigration policy remains unchanged in his country relative to Cuba, despite the relaxation of immigration policy on the island that went into effect on January 14.
Roche had no comment to questions from journalists on the Cuban Adjustment Act allowing Cubans without visas to be admitted into the US or on the program that recruits Cuban doctors away from international aid missions serving poorer nations.
el caso de Cuba no es racial…el negro en Cuba es el que mas apoya al gobierno..por ejemplo la santeria nunca fue perseguida en cuba
What is interesting in this brief post is the implied impression that because the Castros, out of financial desperation, decided to RESTORE to Cubans what is a basic human right to travel, a right that should have never been taken away in the first place, that the US should in some way respond in kind. By doing what? The US Immigration Service receives more than several million visa applications from every corner of the planet each year. The simple task of processing these many applications is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Altering these procedures would have to be justified by some significant advantage to be gained by the change. To do so simply because Cuba thinks so is ridiculous. There continues to be a sense among Castro supporters that the US should respond tit-for-tat to the handful of economic reforms that the Castros have implemented in recent years which were put in place to salvage a moribund economy. These supporters choose to ignore the list of changes requested by the US Congress that would indeed trigger a response in US-Cuba policy. International norms such as buying and selling cars and houses or being able to travel without the need for exit visas while beneficial to a fortunate few Cubans simply do not warrant a US response. However, should Cuba legalize an independent media and allow for freedom of expression, those actions will demand a US response. Open and transparent multiparty democratic elections will also trigger changes in US policy. Short of these changes, however, Cubans should expect little difference in US Cuban relations.